Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb

Silver Fern Farms Limited; Balclutha; On-site; NZD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Staff meat sales discount

Paid sick leave from date of hire

Employee assistance program

On-site parking

Staff uniform

Job summary

Silver Fern Farms in Balclutha is seeking a Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb to lead a production team on the floor, ensuring safety, quality and efficiency while modelling accountability.

You will coach staff, organise daily production plans, drive continuous improvement and collaborate across departments to meet targets in a fast-moving meat processing environment. This hands-on role requires strong leadership, communication and a commitment to health and safety.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience in a production or processing environment.
• Strong commitment to health & safety, quality, compliance and animal welfare.
• Confidence in people management and coaching, with accountability.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to build relationships across levels.
• Continuous improvement mindset and ability to bring others along.
• Proficient in using Excel, Outlook and production systems for reporting and analysis.

Responsibilities

• Inspire and coach your team to achieve production targets and maintain compliance.
• Organise and monitor daily production plans, ensuring quality standards are met.
• Champion health and safety, embedding a safety culture.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and encourage innovative ideas.
• Communicate effectively across departments to ensure smooth operations.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Health & safety

Communication

Continuous improvement

Adaptability

Tools

Excel

Outlook

Production systems

Job description

Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb

Step into a leadership role where you’ll be at the heart of our operations. As Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb, you’ll guide a production team to deliver excellence every day - ensuring safety, quality, and efficiency while fostering a culture of respect and accountability. This is a hands-on role where you’ll spend most of your time on the floor, leading by example and driving continuous improvement.

Shift Pattern: Monday to Friday 5am-3pm. Saturdays would be as required based on processing overtime.

• Inspire and coach your team to achieve production targets and maintain compliance.
• Organise and monitor daily production plans, ensuring quality standards are met.
• Champion health and safety, embedding an uncompromising safety culture.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and encourage innovative ideas.
• Communicate effectively across departments to ensure smooth operations.

We’re looking for a hands-on, people-first leader who’s confident managing production in a fast-moving environment. You’ll take full ownership of your department - leading from the front, supporting your team to deliver great results, and making sure everything runs safely and smoothly. You’ll need to be proactive, solutions-focused, and able to juggle day-to-day performance while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Most importantly, you’ll build a team culture that’s strong, accountable, and ready to adapt to whatever comes next.

• Leadership experience in a production or processing environment (meat industry or FMCG a bonus)
• A strong commitment to health & safety, quality, compliance, and animal welfare
• Confidence in people management - you know how to coach, support and hold your team to account
• Great communication skills and the ability to build strong working relationships across all levels
• A continuous improvement mindset - you're always looking for better ways to do things and can bring others along with you
• Good computer and reporting skills - you’re comfortable using Excel, Outlook and production systems

Te Ahurea /Why work at Silver Fern Farms?

Silver Fern Farms are all about Creating Goodness from the Farms the World Needs. Creating goodness is about taking a broader view of what goodness means, how we can create it and the impact it can have. That Goodness is created through the work of our People, the skill & expertise of our Farmers and our customers around the globe. ‘Goodness’ is also about being good to people and communities, animal welfare, and showing care and respect for the environment.

For you, we offer heavily discounted staff meat sales through our on-site Butcher's Block, paid sick leave from the date of employment (no waiting for the 6-month anniversary required), and confidential employee assistance with career planning, financial advice and counselling. There’s the bonus of free on-site parking and a staff uniform as well.

Silver Fern Farms welcomes people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We are proud to have a diverse and inclusive environment and are committed to providing equal opportunities for all team members and applicants. Come and create goodness together with us.